Burning Buildings
by cmwilding
Summary: AU version of events to take place in "Minimal Loss" What would have happened if Emily had been trapped in the compound and no one knew where she was with only five minutes before the bombs went off.


**A/N- This story takes place during the episode "MINIMAL LOSS" and it starts at the scene where Kathy goes to get Emily to bring her down to the basement. **

Emily flinched as the door slammed behind the men. Her head was throbbing and she could feel a small trail of blood coming from the head wound. Switching positions sent a shooting pain through her body as it aggravated the bruises that Cyrus had given her.

With her hands tied behind her back she struggled to sit up. She heard Kathy shout once before being dragged away. She had been coming back for Emily because she had already gathered the women and children in the basement. Overhearing Cyrus and seeing the explosives herself had made her believe what Emily had been trying to tell her the whole time.

Prentiss had been stuck in the same room since being discovered as an FBI agent. She knew that Cyrus was planning on ending it all soon but she hadn't gotten any signal from her team about when. She knew that they had probably planted bugs but she couldn't even be sure that they knew she had been separated from Reid. She hoped that they had heard what just happened and knew they had to make the move now.

She pulled at her hands trying to get them free of the rope holding them together but they were tied too tightly. She started counting in her head because she needed to know how much time she had left.

"Send everyone out," she said as calmly as the minutes ticked away. She hoped that the team was listening. "Please, just clear the building. There's no time left."

She knew that her team wouldn't want to give up searching, but they would have to. To continue looking for her would just be a suicide mission.

* * *

Outside of the compound all hell was breaking loose. Morgan, Rossi, and Hotch had all overheard what happened with Kathy and Prentiss so they sent everyone in. Rossi went with one SWAT team to get the women and children out and Morgan went in with another team to find Prentiss. They were relying on Reid to make his way out or to the basement once he realized that Cyrus was going to detonate the bombs early.

They had to work quickly if they wanted to get everyone out. Hotch manned the radio and kept listening to what was going on inside. The men were still laying out the last of the bombs but that didn't give them a lot of time.

"In and out guys," Hotch called over the radios. "We need this operation to go quickly and smoothly."

"Copy that," Morgan replied. "I'm already almost halfway done searching the first floor."

"We are starting to send the women and children out now," Rossi called though his own headset. "Less than two minutes and we'll be out of here. Plus we've got Reid"

"Good," Hotch was busy trying to hear all that was going on but it sounded as is progress was being made.

Just as Rossi had said, about a minute later groups of people were making their way out of the building. Rossi and Reid were rounding out the back of the group.

Voices of the men inside brought Hotch back to reality. He still had swats teams and two agents still in the building. The men were almost ready to set off the bombs.

"Hurry up Morgan," he said under his breath.

"Send everyone out," Prentiss' voice came through the headset. "Please, just clear the building. There's no time left."

"Dammit!" Hotch swore. He knew she was right but he still didn't want to leave her there.

"The buildings cleared!" Hotch radioed to Morgan making one of the toughest decisions in his career and his life. "Every one out!"

"We still don't have Emily," came the frustrated reply. "I'm not coming out without her!"

"I said the building was cleared! Find the closest exit and get out. This is an order!"

Hotch knew what his orders meant for Prentiss. He had lost agents before, but this was his call. He should have sent his men in sooner. He knew he had made the right choice to get Derek out when the explosion interrupted his thoughts.

Reid and Rossi both ran to him, not taking their eyes off of the fire.

"Where's Emily?" Reid asked. He started to look around him and then to the ambulances they had lined up waiting to examine anyone who was inside the compound. Hotch knew that the young man was blaming himself for Emily being discovered as a federal agent. Cyrus had been ready to blame Reid when Emily had spoken up and admitted it was her who had been lying about working for CPS.

Hotch just looked back to the compound and both agents did the same.

"Hotch," Reid continued, "where is she?"

"I'm so sorry, Reid."

"No!" Reid yelled. "No, you wouldn't have left her in there! Derek wouldn't have left her in there!"

It was as if Morgan had heard his name being called because he picked that moment to appear out of the smoke, coughing.

"Morgan, where is she?" Reid asked desperately as Derek approached them.

"What do you mean?" He replied after coughing a couple of more times. "Hotch cleared the building."

At his words, all three agents looked back to him. Rossi understood. As a senior agent he had gone in knowing that not everyone would make it out. The other two men looked at Hotch with disbelief.

"She's not out here?" Morgan yelled. "I need to go back in."

Rossi grabbed him as he tried to make his way back to the compound.

"We have a search and rescue team for a reason. If there are any survivors in there, they'll find them." Rossi assured his friend.

Morgan shook him off and went to go stand closer to the burning building. He didn't want to miss anything in case search and rescue needed team him.

* * *

Still counting in her head, Emily knew she was running out of time. Trying to bust the door open wasn't working so she was only left with one other option, the window.

She knew that they would be inside looking for her but at this point there was no way they'd make it in time. She turned toward the window and figured it was her only chance. She was lucky, the building was old and the windows were made of glass, which she could break.

It was a long way down, she wasn't being held on the first floor. She'd made the jump from a second story before, but it hadn't been a pleasant experience. With her hands still tied together behind her she had to break the glass with her shoulder and head. Banging hard against the glass a few times did the trick and although she was now covered in cuts she kicked the rest of the glass out of the window.

Taking a deep breath, she started to climb out feet first before jumping. The fall was fast and even though she immediately couched down into a roll she still landed too hard on her right ankle. She swore as she slowly got up into a standing position and tried to get away from the building as fast as her injuries would allow her.

She felt the blast and fell back down to the ground. She gave herself a minute before she once again struggled to her feet and started to make her way to the front of the compound. It was unlikely anyone would be looking for her where she was. Every step she took caused the pain in her ankle to intensify. The only reason she still had the energy to walk was because of the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

* * *

Derek watched as the search and rescue team went in. They had four of the mothers and all of the men still inside besides Prentiss. He knew that the chance of recovering anyone alive was very slim but he couldn't push that last shred of hope away just yet.

He thought back to when Emily had admitted to being a federal agent. He had to pull his headset off when that monster had pulled her into the spare room. He had heard what each kick did to her. He knew that she was prepared to take it, hell she had even said as much. That didn't make it easier to hear though.

Derek had to blink a few times when he saw a woman who looked just like his partner limp around the corner of the building through the smoke. She stopped, a coughing fit wracking her entire body. Instinct took over and he ran towards her.

As he got closer the only thing he could focus on was the blood. There was blood oozing from cuts all over her face and arms and large bruise forming on her head. She had been limping, her right ankle looked as if it was about to give out.

"Emily!" He called out to her and she looked up at him and their eyes met. She smiled in relief and picked up her pace until they finally reached one another. He wrapped his arms around her to make sure she was really there and not just a figment of his imagination. As she gave into exhaustion and leaned on him he finally released all the tension he had been feeling since Cyrus had found out she was working for the FBI.

"Its alright baby girl," he whispered. "You're going to be alright."

As her nerves started to calm down the last remaining energy left her and she felt herself lean further in toward her friend. She closed her eyes as he continued to tell her she was safe.

"Can you walk the rest of the way back?" He asked. He knew it wasn't that far of a walk back but with a bad foot, hands tied behind her back, and a head injury he knew that the journey just to the front of the building must have been tough. He also knew that Emily Prentiss saw accepting help from others as a weakness and didn't want to upset her.

"I'm not sure," she responded honestly. She was too tired and her ankle hurt too much to care about other people seeing her vulnerable.

Derek didn't hesitate to scoop her up and bring her to the closest ambulance. The EMTs quickly went to work cleaning out her cuts, giving her ice, and examining her injuries.

Reid and the others had noticed when Derek had suddenly taken off running. Hotch cursed and they all chased after him. None of them could believe their eyes when they saw Derek embrace who could only be Emily.

"Oh, thank god." Rossi let out a sigh of relief.

Hotch just shook his head as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Reid stood there going over various facts about explosions and survival rates and thanking whatever entity was out there that his friend had made it out alive.

They were shocked when Derek took Emily into his arms and she didn't struggle at all. The fact that she was letting him carry her showed how badly she was hurt. The three men followed Morgan as he carried their friend to the closest ambulance.

"Is she going to be okay?" Hotch asked the EMT the question on everyone's mind. Her injuries didn't appear to be life threatening, but the way Emily was lying so still had them all worrying.

"She should be just fine," the EMT assured them. "Although I can't declare her healthy until she gets that head wound checked out by a doctor."

They were loading her into the ambulance when Derek asked to ride with her.

The EMT nodded so Derek climbed in and took Emily's hand in his.

"We'll meet you at the hospital then," Hotch called as they closed to doors.

* * *

JJ had been talking to the media at the time of the explosion. She had taken off her earpiece so she could concentrate on making sure the press didn't leak any more facts about what was going on inside the compound. At the sound of the bombs going off though she excused herself and made her way back to where her team was set up.

Once she got there though, she immediately knew something was wrong. No one from the FBI was there, only the local police. She went up to one of them and asked where Hotch was.

"He followed one of the ambulances," the men answered. "He just said one of his agents needed medical attention and for us to take over."

"Do you know who was injured? What hospital did they go to? Did everyone make it out?" She asked without pausing between questions.

"Uh, I'm not sure who it was. There's only one hospital even close to here I can give you the directions," the man explained. "All law enforcement made it out. Only civilians are still inside."

She thanked him after she wrote down the way to the hospital. She pulled out her phone and dialed Morgan but didn't get an answer. She then called the rest of the team but nobody else answered either.

When she got to the hospital she saw Morgan, Hotch, Reid, and Rossi all sitting in the ER waiting room. That only left Prentiss to be the one who got hurt.

"What happened?" JJ asked them. "Is she going to be okay?"

"They just took her to get an MRI and a CAT scan," Hotch told her. "She had lacerations on her face and arms but none of the cuts required stiches. Beside that she has bruising all over and she took a couple of blows to the face. She has a concussion but they haven't told us how bad it is. She was conscious, so that's a good sign. Apparently she jumped out of the window to escape and severely sprained her ankle in the process. The doctor assured us that she's going to be fine, but she was a little out of it when she got here."

JJ nodded as she took in all this information. "Did anyone call Garcia? She's been calling me since the explosion but since I didn't really know what was going on I didn't want to answer."

They all shook their heads and Morgan groaned. "She's going to kill us for not calling sooner! She must have seen what happened on the news and freaked out."

JJ took Morgan's seat when he got up and pulled out his cell. "I'm just going to go and fill her in now. Come and get me if there's any news on Prentiss."

They all nodded and went back to their own thoughts. It had been a stressful day so they were all tired. None of them would leave without the official word that Emily would be all right.

They had to wait for another forty-five minutes before a nurse said they could go and see their friend. Morgan had spent most of that time outside talking to Garcia and had only just sat down when they got the news.

The team piled in the small room, JJ taking the only seat and moving it closer to the bed. Emily was sleeping but the commotion of them walking in the room woken her up.

"Hey Princess," Derek said as soon as he saw her open her eyes. "How ya feeling?"

"Better," she replied. "The doctor said he would release me soon."

"That's good. I had thought for a minute that you," Reid trailed off. It was painfully obvious what Reid had thought happened to Emily. The rest of the team grew quiet with his words.

"Hey," she assured him. "I'm fine."

As if to prove her point the doctor chose that moment to return with her discharge papers.

"Alright Agent Prentiss," he said, "just sign here and you're free to go."

She signed the papers and limped over to the bathroom where she changed back into her clothes.

"Okay," she gave them a smirk. "You guys ready?"

"Oh we were born ready," Morgan said with a wink. He wrapped his arm around her as JJ handed her crutches. "Lets get out of here!"

Emily laughed. It had been a long, painful day but at least it was almost over. She knew she still had to talk to Reid and make sure he didn't blame himself for anything that happened inside the compound. It hadn't escaped her notice the guilty looks that Hotch and Morgan had shot her either. She'd have to make time to talk to them, too.

That could all wait until tomorrow though, tonight she would just be thankful to be alive and able to enjoy her friends' presence.


End file.
